'Spider-Man 4' Exclusive Accidentally Outs Closet Fangirl Nikki Finke

While regular Nikki Finke readers know she don't do geek, you'd be forgiven for assuming from today's column that she occasionally dabbles in dweeb: Watch as she churns a Spidey Wiki's worth of Peter Parker biographical material cross-referenced with the latest villain indexes into the mother of all Spider-Man 4 exclusives, its vital insider information fed to her in the basement of a Century City parking structure by an anonymous figure known only as Deep Flack. More »

The Death of 'Austin Powers' (And Six More Hobbled Franchises Worth Putting Down)

After the unfortunate reception for The Love Guru, it's just too easy to write off New Line's prospective Austin Powers revival (which Mike Myers is reportedly working on for New Line with former series collaborator Mike McCullers) as yet another ill-advised folly belching the black smoke of Myers's career. In fact, taken as merely a part of the larger phenomenon we at Defamer like to call The End of Ideas, the Powers franchise is but a speck of the shit on Hollywood's collective bathroom wall — a tableau diligently studied today by the haz-mat crew at Entertainment Weekly. More »

Sam Raimi Confirms Evil Dead 4

Awesome news out of San Diego Comic-Con. Spider-Man director Sam Raimi announced that he's getting back together with actor Bruce Campbell for a fourth installment of their stellar Evil Dead franchise. Though the zombie-filled series has been dormant since 1992's Army of Darkness, Raimi—who was promoting his upcoming flick, Drag Me to Hell—told fans that part 4 is "in the wheelhouse." More »

Sam Raimi Not Giving Up on Spider-Man Franchise

I know, I know, better things could have happened than Spider-Man 3 after the first two installments kicked so much ass. But director Sam Raimi is suddenly saying that he would indeed like to direct the inevitable Spider-Man 4 and keep all the original cast members. "'James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) is writing the script and I'm excited to read it. I think it's going to be done in a few months,' Raimi said. A year ago, Marvel and company were hunting down a new writer, based less on where they knew the characters were headed and more on where the new writer wanted to take the story. Raimi seems excited about Vanderbilt's concept, adding, 'I'm hoping it's as great as our discussions were about it.'" More »

Jilted Spider-Man Getting Over It as Raimi Picks up Spy Franchise

Your Dad will likely be thrilled to hear this morning that Paramount plans a Jack Ryan revival starting in 2010, while the rest of us are intrigued to see Sam Raimi recruited as the studio's go-to helmer for the reborn franchise. A glorified genre director if ever there was one, Raimi's stewardship of Sony's $2.5 billion Spider-Man empire reportedly impressed the 'Mount enough to lock him in for the fifth installment of the spy series for a 2010 release. More »

Spider-Friends Remember Sony's Amy Pascal On Her Big Day

The weekly edition of Variety officially awards its Showmen of the Year honor, the most coveted recognition in all of showbiz trade journalism (and yes, that includes Var's Billion Dollar Director Day celebration), to Sony's Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal, an occasion necessitating the purchase of full-page tribute ads by any talent, producers, or agency ever hoping to get a movie made at their red-hot studio. While none of the ads make direct mention of Pascal's ceremonial bepenising by the publication, this minimalist, phoned-in-by-someone's-unimaginative-assistant offering by Spider-Man's trio of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and Sam Raimi (really, couldn't someone have thrown some spider-related clip art on there?—click the thumbnail to enlarge) nods to the co-president's honorary gender reassignment, a little in-joke that only those who've generated billions in box office grosses can get away without fear of career reprisals. More »

Topher Grace Totally OK With Director's Hat Choice

We at Defamer realize that not every momentary disagreement between actor and director ends with the star storming off to his trailer to call his agent, with the optional stop to gun down a smirking grip in cold blood on the way there. Accordingly, we are happy to share The Slug blog's account of the hat-related detente quickly achieved between an initially golf-cap-suspicious Topher Grace and a gently insistent Sam Raimi on the set of Spider-Man 3: More »